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The slowly rising X-ray flux of Nova V5668 Sgr (N Sgr 2015 no. 2)

ATel #7953; K. L. Page (U. Leicester), N. P.M. Kuin (UCL/MSSL), J. P. Osborne (U. Leicester), G. J. Schwarz (AAS)
on 26 Aug 2015; 16:55 UT
Credential Certification: Kim Page (kpa@star.le.ac.uk)

Subjects: Ultra-Violet, X-ray, Nova

Referred to by ATel #: 7986, 8054, 8275

Nova PNV J18365700-2855420, also known as Nova Sgr 2015 No. 2 and as V5668 Sgr, was discovered on 2015 March 15.634 at mag 6.0 (CBET #4080). Swift observations began 2.6 days later, on March 18. The new nova was optically very bright, requiring that the Swift-UVOT initially be blocked, and the XRT to be operated in Windowed Timing (WT) mode to reduce optical loading. (The 1-dimensional WT mode has a frame-time of 1.76 ms, minimising the charge liberated by optical photons and thus its effects on X-ray measurement; see http://www.swift.ac.uk/analysis/xrt/optical_loading.php). WT mode observations continued until the optical magnitude had decreased sufficiently, to around magnitude 8, on 2015 June 16; no X-ray source was detected in WT mode. After this time, PC mode could be reliably used.

The first X-ray detection of the nova occurred on 2015 June 18, 95 days after the outburst, at a count rate of (6.1 +2.5/-1.9) x 10-3 count s-1. The initial X-ray source was relatively hard and very absorbed; fitting a spectrum for the data obtained between June 18 and July 3 (days 95 - 112) with an absorbed optically-thin APEC component gives kT = 1.3 +0.5/-0.3 keV, and a high column of NH = (4.7 +1.6/-1.2) x 1022 cm-2. After this time, the X-ray source softened and slowly brightened, reaching a level of 0.060 +/- 0.005 count s-1 on 2015 August 23 (day 161). A spectrum formed from the data collected between August 16 and 23 (days 153-161) is much less absorbed, with NH = (0.4 +/- 0.1) x 1022 cm-2, and kT = 3.4 +1.4/-0.8 keV. The differences between the spectra are almost entirely due to the decrease of the absorption column.

On 2015 June 21, using photometry from the readout streak, UVOT measured a magnitude of uvm2 = 8.5 +/- 0.2. The UV emission reached a minimum two weeks later, with uvw2 = 11.44 +/- 0.07 on July 3. Since then the brightness has slowly increased to uvw2 = 10.85 +/- 0.10 on August 18. The optical emission was also seen to rebrighten over this same time interval, evidently as the nova recovered after a dust extinction event (ATel #7643, #7862)

We thank the Swift PI and mission operations team for their ongoing support.